1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a door lock with a protective means which is designed to prevent theft of vehicles.
2. Description of the Related Art
A door lock with a protective means such as that shown in FIG. 4 has heretofore been known as a prior art related to the present invention.
In this prior art door lock, an open lever 14 which is linked with an open rod 3 is pivotally mounted on a base plate 1, while a locking lever 7 which is linked with a locking link 6 is pivotally mounted on a sub plate 2, and the open lever 14 and the locking lever 7 are linked with each other through a locking rod 10 so that the door is selectively locked and unlocked by the pivotal motion of the open lever 14 which is caused by the pivotal motion of the locking lever 7. The door lock is further provided with a protective member 12 which is rigidly secured to a sub base 11 which is in turn rigidly secured to the base plate 1 by the use of rivets 13 which are caulked after being inserted respectively through two pairs of bores provided in both the sub base 11 and the protective member 12, thus preventing the door from being unlocked from the outside of the vehicle by means of a special tool such as a wire.
The above-described prior art suffers, however, from the following disadvantages. Since the protective member in the prior art is produced as a constituent element which is separate from the door lock body, a sub base and rivets are needed to mount the protective member and this increases the number of parts and the number of man-hours required to assemble the door lock. Further, since the rivets must be caulked, it is necessary to provide an additional space for mounting the protective member. In addition, since that portion of the sub base on which the protective member is mounted sticks out from the outer periphery of the door lock body and the arrangement of peripheral parts which are provided inside the door depends on the type of vehicle, it is necessary to design a protective member for each type of vehicle.